Really Local Group’s Catford Mews site in south-east London has closed, leading to a war of words between the company and Lewisham Council.
The site housed a cinema, food and beverage operators and community space, set up in 2019 and converting an old Poundland shop in the Catford Centre shopping complex, SE6.
In an interview with EG shortly before it opened, Really Local Group founder Preston Benson said the company’s goal was to help turn around parts of London in which “there were a lack of cultural amenities; areas with little or nothing to do”.
In a statement this week as the site was closed, Lewisham Council said it and its wholly owned Catford Regeneration Partnership had been working with Really Local Group “for a number of years to avoid this situation”. It claimed Really Local Group had run up arrears of more than £650,000 since 2019 and added that “the council, or CRPL, simply cannot afford to prop up a private commercial organisation to this scale”.
Really Local Group has described Lewisham Council’s statement as “defamatory” and said it “destroys the reputation of our company and deflects from the council’s responsibility for the closure of Catford Mews”. It said it had attempted to work with CRPL but had its number blocked by officers “until the lease was forfeited without warning on 29 October”.
It added that its rent arrears total £204,000 relating to the period the company was “either unable to operate or severely restricted during Covid”, noting: “In addition, [the council] has added in £168,000 which we have never received invoices for, nor have we, in recent years, received any annual service charge budget.”
Really Local Group continued: “The costs burden has not, as the council suggests, been one way. We have shouldered significant repair and maintenance costs (including damage to venue caused by the roof leaking) of £94,000 in addition to daily security totaling £178,000 to prop up the Catford Centre, the costs of which were meant to be contractually borne by CRPL. Further, because of the delay by the council in carrying out significant roof repairs for which they were responsible, thousands of pounds of damage were caused to the first floor studio at Catford Mews. This caused the loss of our tenant and lost contractual rents of £84,000.”
The council noted that Really Local Group sites in Peckham and Ealing have entered administration in recent months. Really Local Group said: “These situations are unrelated and have little in common with this one as both of these venues still continue to trade with supportive landlords.”
According to the council, Really Local Group held a lease until 2029, the terms of which had not been fulfilled due to the company’s failure to pay bills to CRPL. CRPL drafted a heads of terms agreement, after fresh negotiations, following which the council said Really Local Group requested that the lease be transferred to a new company. “As a precaution, CRPL asked RLG/Catford Mews for an asset-based guarantee to ensure that the debt could be recovered. The Really Local Group never provided this,” the council said.
Really Local Group responded: “This is factually incorrect. Both parties saw this deal as an opportunity for a clean slate and then a new company was proposed as the original lease had no provision for paying the Covid arrears. Further we offered the requested guarantee at least five times both in person and in writing.”
The council added: “We recognise operations like Catford Mews were severely impacted during the pandemic. In response to this, CRPL provided a significant rent-free period. The council, in addition, chose to support Really Local Group with a total of £77,890 of additional financial support during this period. A £50,000 grant was awarded to refurbish the rear of the property and increase the offer (and therefore income) at Catford Mews. That work was never delivered.”
Really Local Group described that as “an extremely misleading statement”. “There has never been an official write-off of Covid arrears as noted above,” it added. “Of the £77,890 detailed. £27,890 was granted to all businesses in Lewisham and £50,000 was part of the Lewisham Inclusive Growth Builder fund award, something which we qualified for. These monies noted above were invested into the venue. It would have been deeply irresponsible to have launched [music venue] The Tail when the business was recovering from its forced closure and was repeatedly required to make repair and maintenance investments to the fabric of the Catford Centre, a responsibility of CPRL.
“Since receiving these funds, we have had numerous conversations with the council around their use. In addition, we have held dozens of free events on behalf of the council. We were proud to see ourselves as an extension of town hall. At no point before [this week’s statement] has anyone from CRPL or the council ever raised this issue with us, and we question the motives for raising it now.”
Lewisham Council said it is working with CRPL to find an alternative operator, adding: “There are a number of options being explored to minimise the time Catford Mews is closed.”
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